New Guinea - The Overprinted German Colonial Stamps

Second page from the album New Guinea - Stamps of the Australian Military Administration Volume 1. The typed information on this page provides a detailed introduction to the history and significance of overprinted German colonial postal stamps during the Australian military administration of German New Guinea at the time of the First World War.

Prior to the Australian occupation of New Guinea in 1914, New Guinea was under the control of the German Empire. The first German post offices opened there in 1888 and used many of the empire's official stamps issued between 1875 and 1897. From 1897, six German stamps were overprinted with the name of the colony, the name changing to full print from 1901.

During the First World War, in response to the German threat in the Pacific, Australia raised the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF). In September of 1914, the ANMEF invaded and occupied German New Guinea, capturing and destroying the radio stations and coal stations supporting the German East Asia Squadron. Consequently, the various departments of the German colonial government were taken over by an Australian administration. This included the Department of Post and Telephones. By December 1914, what supplies remained of the German colonial stamps for New Guinea and the Marshall Islands were overprinted and surcharged by the government printer at Rabaul. The upper line of the overprint featured "G.R.I." for Georgius Rex Imperator in honour of George V, King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India. The second line featured a new denomination conveyed in the Australian pound subdivisions, pence ("d.") and shilling ("s."). The same year, supplies of stamps from the German Marshall Islands were retrieved in Nauru and were overprinted in the same fashion as German New Guinea stamps.

From 1915 to 1925, current Australian stamps were overprinted in Melbourne with "North West Pacific Islands" for use in the territory. This included stamps from the Kangaroo and Map series and the George V series.

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, German New Guinea became the Territory of New Guinea, a League of Nations Mandate Territory under Australian administration. The overprinted stamps were still in use until 1925 when the administration issued the territory's first stamp series.